I came outside to run to the store and looked up and noticed a bright "planet" above the tree line across the street; pretty much directly north. It was around 9:00 to 9:30 pm. At first glance it was rather "normal."

It was a clear night and the stars and a few planets were visible (Jupiter and Mars).
In fact, I could see a few high altitude aircraft passing over as is the norm. (I look up at the sky on a regular basis when I leave the house. I like to try and spot satellites as they pass over)

But something was amiss here; this object didn't twinkle like a star (why I labeled it as a "planet"). I had never noticed such an extremely bright object in this location.

It appeared to be in between the brightness of Jupiter and Mars. Neither of which would be located at this position. The color was off for either too. It wasn't as red as Mars and yet not as light as Jupiter; more of a yellow/orange in color. I really had to pause for a moment. I could look up and see Jupiter. I could look over and see Mars close to the horizon.

While I'm not completely sure of the constellations and their positions, I did note that this object was perhaps a "fist-width" distance from a star to its right and it was stationary; it did not move.

I observed this light for approx. 5 minutes. I walked back under the carport and then came back. I walked over into my neighbor’s yard trying to determine if this was perhaps something at tree-top level.

It's placement in relation to the star remained the same. The next thing perplexed me more. It faded. It faded down to that little pinpoint of light just like a satellite would as it gets closer to the horizon and sinks below the sunshine at that altitude.

It was like someone had turned off the power and all that remained was the residual glow of the filament in a bulb. This sort of freaked me. There was light splotchy haze moving across the sky. The "dimming" I saw would be consistent with a bright light source being masked/blocked with in moving haze/clouds; but... no, I could not detect any "cloud" in that spot and the star that was to its right.

The one I used to determine whether it moved or not, never dulled or was blocked by haze/clouds.

I got in my car and went to the store. I came back, thinking perhaps this light would reappear or still be there; nope. I have never seen a "UFO" that I know of either as a child or an adult.

But this, whatever it was, was not normal, or perhaps average. It was certainly new to me. I have been pondering this for days. Perhaps a secret launch from VA? I don't know.

But I do know this: If this was a rocket booster pushing some satellite up into orbit its flight path had to be identical or extremely close along my line of sight compared to that star.

There was no indication of a distance change between the object and that star or other indication of motion; pulsing, fluctuation or color change; nothing till that smooth sudden fade.

I hesitated to report this for a few days. I was still trying to find the name of the stars and constellations at that location in the sky. I did notice that there was a report very similar in Tennessee 2 days later. Any Ideas? Please let me know something.

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